CHARBONNEAU – Non-fungible tokens could help artists make a living

Posted on March 26, 2021 in Charbonneau, Local Voices, Page One // 0 Comments

(Image: Gerd Altmann, Pixabay.com)

I DIDN’T REALIZE MY ART WAS NON-FUNGIBLE but that was because I didn’t know what the word fungible meant. Until recently, fungible was rarely used outside legal circles. Now, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become all the rage.

Fungible things can be exchanged for something else of the same kind: they are equivalent. A twenty dollar bill is fungible because it can be exchanged for a ten and two fives. A house is not fungible because you can’t exchange it for a garage and two sheds. They are not equivalent.

My art is non-fungible. One of my acrylic paintings can’t be exchanged for a charcoal sketch and two plastic-fork mobiles.

Tokens that are non-fungible raise the level of abstraction beyond that of abstract art.

A non-fungible token is entirely virtual. It’s a bit of information stored on a blockchain, the same technology used to record cryptocurrencies. Blockchains can be used to store indelible records about almost anything, from the grocery store produce as it moves through the supply chain to medical records.

Read More >>

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.